STV Import: SlimPlayer 2.0 - Slacker, Pandora, Sirius,... on Extenders

[koelec]

I'm proud to present to you version 2 of the SlimPlayer plugin for default STV and now also for the SageMC STV .
Slimplayer is an integrated player for SageTV for playing music from SqueezeCenter.
Slimplayer brings all of this fully integrated on SageTV:
Playback of Internet Radio:
- free and subscription based:

Pandora, LastFM, Rapsody, Slacker, Live365, MediaFly, radioio, RadioTime, SHOUTcast, SIRIUS, Napster, Deezer














- numerous SqueezeCenter plugins listed here: http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.ph...Center_Plugins

Playback of music collection on local file system
- compatible with most non-drm file formats: MP3,WMA, FLAC, ...
- iTunes support

Integration on SageTV
- support for SageTV Client
- support of HD100/HD200 extenders and placeshifter through hardware or software-only* loopback configuration
- seamless integration with SageTV menu's
- search YouTube on currently playing artist
- Artist biography
- Artist photo's (slideshow)
- Artist news ticker tape
- Artist news headline
- Artist news article reading
*software-only loopback needs Virtual Audio Cable software program, which is not free (http://software.muzychenko.net/eng/vac.html), but you can try before you buy

Release 2.1.2 changes

• fixes problems with accessing Now playing and Artist News in default STV version
• new power button (now you can power down slimplayer- in previous versions the always-on nature prevented SqueezeCenter from purging its filecache)

Release 2.1.1 changes

• sageMC STVI layout improvements
• better artist news ticker
• new slimplayer option to enable/disable ticker

Release 2.1 changes

• support for multiple extenders (but no simultaneous playback)
• extensive configration from slimplayer's menu
• sageMC STVI included (needs SageMC 6.3.9a+)
• updated to latest SageTV API v6.6

Release 2.0 brings the following new features:

• extenders and placeshifter support - hardware or software only loopback
• externalized ArtistInfo htmlscraper script - Uses WebHarvest script to retrieve artist picture url and artist bio text
• Multiple artist pictures (slideshow) from internet
• artist news browsing and article reading
• latest artist news ticker tape
• search playing artist on youtube
• auto transition to now playing menu
• configurable SageMediaPlayer integration options:
  INDEPENDENT (slimplayer and SageMediaPlayer can play simultaneously - configure slimplayer to use different audio device),
  EXCLUSIVE (Either slimplayer or SageMediaPlayer is playing),
  SYNC (slimplayer playback and sagetvmediaplayer are synchronized for support of extenders)

Some quotes on capabilities of SqueezeCenter (and slimplayer):
"SqueezeCenter (formerly SlimServer) powers Logitech's Squeezebox™, and Transporter® and network music players and is the best software to stream your music to any software MP3 player. It supports MP3, AAC, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, WAV and more!"

SqueezeCenter 7 is available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. Perl source code is also available for all platforms".

"Compatible with virtually all non-DRM audio file formats; provides access to PC-based music files (on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines) as well as PC-free Internet radio and podcasts; able to access multiple free (Last.fm, Pandora, Slacker) and premium (Rhapsody, Sirius) online music services; excellent online account integration".


You can download the software from the download section http://forums.sage.tv/forums/downloa...do=file&id=121
Or from the project on googlecode:
http://code.google.com/p/slimplayerp...downloads/list
Follow the installation instructions in the included readme file.

You need the slimplayer 2.1.2 distribution, which contains all details on how to set it up.
Extender and placeshifter users will also need the slimplayer UNE extension download (only available from the slimplayer project page).


Special thanks goes to:

• mkanet - for ideas and testing
• heffe2001 - software loopback solution
• morgan - sageMC stvi

Remark from mkanet:

• For anyone using Internet radio stations; you can use the latest Squeeze Center with Softsqueeze/Slimplayer; however, you need to change the setting in SC player/audio/mp3 streaming method=proxied streaming. This is true for SC version 7.3.x and newer. SC version 7.2.1 and older, you can still keep this setting at the default (mp3 streaming method=direct streaming).

- Chris

[MacDaddy]

Thank you, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!. I have 5 SB receivers that I use to run all my audio zones. I tend to bounce back and forth between using the Duet controller, my iPhone and browser to control what's playing. When I use Sage (which is looking at the same music library) on the rare occasion to flip through music, it aches to be so close but not there in getting everything to play well together. This will make the better half extremely happy (and what makes Momma happy, makes everyone happy).

I'm not worthy

[bcjenkins]

Can you elaborate on how the extender support works? Will it work in Linux?

Thanks!

B

[koelec]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Can you elaborate on how the extender support works? Will it work in Linux?

Thanks!

B

The extender support works with either hardware loopback or software loopback. For software loopback UNE (universal network encoder) together with VAC (Virtual Audio Cable) is used. Start playback in the slimplayer menu will start playback of the stream from squeezecenter and let SageMediaPlayer tune into the channel simultaneously (you don't have to go te EPG and start watching a channel).

Since UNE is windows only, the only option on Linux or Mac will be to use the hardware loopback, which means dedicating an analog capture device for audio playback.
MKanet has been testing this configuration (on windows) and it works very good.
Later I will post some pictures on this thread to show some possible configurations.

- Chris

[Brent]

Looks nice! Can't wait for the SageMC version

[bcjenkins]

Originally Posted by koelec

The extender support works with either hardware loopback or software loopback. For software loopback UNE (universal network encoder) together with VAC (Virtual Audio Cable) is used. Start playback in the slimplayer menu will start playback of the stream from squeezecenter and let SageMediaPlayer tune into the channel simultaneously (you don't have to go te EPG and start watching a channel).

Since UNE is windows only, the only option on Linux or Mac will be to use the hardware loopback, which means dedicating an analog capture device for audio playback.
MKanet has been testing this configuration (on windows) and it works very good.
Later I will post some pictures on this thread to show some possible configurations.

- Chris

Any reason the VLC encoder couldn't do this too?

B

[mkanet]

As a beta tester, I've been using Slimplayer 2.0 for the past few weeks on my HD200, Placeshifter, SageTV Client, both with software loopback and hardware. Its super easy to install and setup. I know if I can setup it up, anyone can. All I know is it just works!

My wife can finally listen to Pandora, Slacker, Sirius Radio, and our entire music collection on our living room TV via the HD200 all integrated into one music menu. I personally like the youtube video integration and news feeds for each artist that plays back.

Thank you Chris for making my most favorite addon to sageTV!

The next step is to get Morgan to offer us the sageMC flavor of this..

<-- Me and my wife

[Wirenut]

I'm getting an error listed when I switch to the SlimPlayer plugin from the online services menu.

It pops up in Sage as: "Error: found unresolved Classes, please ensure null is present in the Jars folder of SageTV."

I then hit ok. And everything works fine. When I switch back from the "now playing window" to the favorites main page, it subsequently shows up again. I hit ok and it continues to work fine.

I unzipped the contents of the Slimplayer-2.0-distribution file to the Standard SageTV directory... with the local client closed and the service stopped.

I'm using the latest Squeezecenter and the latest Softsqueeze with Dynamic Menus and Comskip plugins. I removed the old version v1.3 of SlimPlayer and installed the new version from the Manage STVI console within Sage.

This is SageTV ver 6.5.9 and Java 1.6.13. The plugin is operating in Exlusive mode.

Happy to have the artist information back and the new ticker is really cool too.

So it's probably something simple, cause it works pretty darn nicely. We're just using it on the Local client in Service mode... haven't had a need for placeshifting or extending it yet.

Thanks for some great work,

Wirenut

[bastafidli]

Originally Posted by koelec

The extender support works with either hardware loopback or software loopback. For software loopback UNE (universal network encoder) together with VAC (Virtual Audio Cable) is used. Start playback in the slimplayer menu will start playback of the stream from squeezecenter and let SageMediaPlayer tune into the channel simultaneously (you don't have to go te EPG and start watching a channel).

Since UNE is windows only, the only option on Linux or Mac will be to use the hardware loopback, which means dedicating an analog capture device for audio playback.
MKanet has been testing this configuration (on windows) and it works very good.
Later I will post some pictures on this thread to show some possible configurations.

- Chris

Is there any documentation about the hardware loopback for Linux? I would love to give this a try. Thank you.

[koelec]

Sorry my mistake.
There was some old code left in the STVI file. If you replace it with the one attached to this post and then let SageTV rebuild the STV that should fix it.
This fixed STVI file is also available from the slimplayer project's home:
http://code.google.com/p/slimplayerp...downloads/list
listed as Slimplayer plugin v2.0 STVI fix 1

- Chris

Originally Posted by Wirenut

I'm getting an error listed when I switch to the SlimPlayer plugin from the online services menu.

It pops up in Sage as: "Error: found unresolved Classes, please ensure null is present in the Jars folder of SageTV."

I then hit ok. And everything works fine. When I switch back from the "now playing window" to the favorites main page, it subsequently shows up again. I hit ok and it continues to work fine.

I unzipped the contents of the Slimplayer-2.0-distribution file to the Standard SageTV directory... with the local client closed and the service stopped.

I'm using the latest Squeezecenter and the latest Softsqueeze with Dynamic Menus and Comskip plugins. I removed the old version v1.3 of SlimPlayer and installed the new version from the Manage STVI console within Sage.

This is SageTV ver 6.5.9 and Java 1.6.13. The plugin is operating in Exlusive mode.

Happy to have the artist information back and the new ticker is really cool too.

So it's probably something simple, cause it works pretty darn nicely. We're just using it on the Local client in Service mode... haven't had a need for placeshifting or extending it yet.

Thanks for some great work,

Wirenut

[koelec]

I know Mkanet has this running (on Windows) with an analog capture card and two audio cards on Windows, but you can have this working with only one audio card as well.
All you have to do is physically connect the output from the audio card to the audio input of your analog capture card. This would probably mean you cannot use the capture card for something else. If you use the composite video input of the card I suppose you need a video signal as well (doesn't matter what).

Mkanet use two audio card because he wants to be able to use a local sagetv on the server (outputting to audio card #2) next to the audio loopback setup.

Mkanet, can you elaborate on this a little bit more...?

Originally Posted by bastafidli

Is there any documentation about the hardware loopback for Linux? I would love to give this a try. Thank you.

[mkanet]

Hi Koelec, you summed it up perfectly. I have a PC which has a builtin audio card into the motherboard (Realtek HD) and have a separate PCI sound card (Creative XiFi Sound Blaster). I use the Creative sound card for my local machine sounds (since I use my sageTV server machine as a workstation as well) and discreetly have the output of Softsqueeze set for the Realtek HD analog speaker output Softsqueeze Configuration: (Audio tab, Audio Mixer=Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio). I have an audio cable connected from the output of my PC (coming from the Realtek output) into my analog capture card (Hauppauge 950q). I also have svideo going into to my capture card from a misc video source thats active

However, if you dont use your sageTV server as a workstation (some people just put their server in a closet somewhere), then you can just connect the output of the default sound card (only sound card) into the capture card.

Originally Posted by koelec

I know Mkanet has this running (on Windows) with an analog capture card and two audio cards on Windows, but you can have this working with only one audio card as well.
All you have to do is physically connect the output from the audio card to the audio input of your analog capture card. This would probably mean you cannot use the capture card for something else. If you use the composite video input of the card I suppose you need a video signal as well (doesn't matter what).

Mkanet use two audio card because he wants to be able to use a local sagetv on the server (outputting to audio card #2) next to the audio loopback setup.

Mkanet, can you elaborate on this a little bit more...?

[bastafidli]

Originally Posted by mkanet

However, if you dont use your sageTV server as a workstation (some people just put their server in a closet somewhere), then you can just connect the output of the default sound card (only sound card) into the capture card.

When you say capture card, since I am interested in audio only, can this be just a sound card so the output would be connected to line in? Thanks

[koelec]

Originally Posted by bastafidli

When you say capture card, since I am interested in audio only, can this be just a sound card so the output would be connected to line in? Thanks

Unfortunately no, you need a video capture card because extenders need video to be present in streams from the server. It involves setting up a video capture source in the SageTV setup menu.

[rafahol]

I have downloaded the slimplayer-2.0.stvi plugin to be able to use Slimplayer for radio/shoutcast etc. but don't see it in my music or online videos. On my Music I can't access any submenu and from the Online Videos I can't see this plugin. Is there a special way what I have to do to load it?

[Wirenut]

Koelec, Thanks that new STVi works great. No errors.

Great plugin!

Peace,

Wirenut

[koelec]

Originally Posted by rafahol

I have downloaded the slimplayer-2.0.stvi plugin to be able to use Slimplayer for radio/shoutcast etc. but don't see it in my music or online videos. On my Music I can't access any submenu and from the Online Videos I can't see this plugin. Is there a special way what I have to do to load it?

Did you install the slimplayer 2.0 zip file as well? There are instructions in the readme file in there.

[rafahol]

No I didn't install the slimplayer 2.0 zip file yet. I thought this was not necessary as I only would like to play internet radio streams from shoutcast or radiotime within SageTV. Do you know if it's necessary to actually have a Sqeezebox or is it sufficient to install the software on your computer?

[koelec]

Originally Posted by rafahol

No I didn't install the slimplayer 2.0 zip file yet. I thought this was not necessary as I only would like to play internet radio streams from shoutcast or radiotime within SageTV.

The stvi you downloaded is actually only a small part of the plugin. You have to follow the instructions in the readme file of the main distribution zip file.

Do you know if it's necessary to actually have a Sqeezebox or is it sufficient to install the software on your computer?

No, you don't need a Squeezebox or any of the other hardware players. This plugin contains a copy of SoftSqueeze.

[heffe2001]

So someone finally took my method of using the Virtual cable for the Pandora plugin, and extended it. Glad it could be of help . Now if we could just figure out how to make it work with Netflix and not need a tuner card at all, we'd be in business .

Just as a FYI, the graph your using in UNE may not work on every system (I know I had issues with mine between my test box, and my production Sage machine, virtually the same software setups, but for whatever reason the graphs I made on the test box didn't always work on the production box). I also didn't notice (haven't delved into this ones configuration much yet) if you have everything working with service mode setups (there used to be an issue with Pandora, but the creator supplied a work-around that seems to work great).

*EDIT* Looks like service mode/non-service mode is a non-issue since it's pulling the audio from SqueezeCenter, so should work for everyone . Also might want to add that the virtual audio cable software isn't free ($30): Virtual Audio Cable